On NetTuts.com today there's a new article from Gabriel Manricks looking in to the future of the PHP language at what's slated to be included in PHP 5.5., the next major release.

The first PHP 5.5 alpha has been publicly released. After having some time to test and experiment with it, we can now bring you our in-depth overview of what to look forward for!

He walks you through the installation (compiling, not via packages) of this latest release once you've downloaded it. He then goes down the list of features, some of which are pretty recent additions to the planned release including: generators, lists in foreach, the new password API, cURL updates (SMTP) and a few smaller updates.

Sherif Ramadan has a new post that gets into some good detail about what you can expect in the upcoming PHP 5.5 release with loads of new features.

There's been some talk about PHP 5.5.0 over the past couple of months even though it is barely on the horizon. The reason for this is that the PHP project has seen some increased levels of activity over the last two years since the dawn of PHP 5.4 and now in to the early twilight phase of PHP 5.5.0-dev. For those of you that haven't been following the internals mailing list I'm about to give you a quick test-drive and sneak-peak at PHP 5.5 using the latest 5.5.0-dev branch (which is still TBD).

Obviously, since the actual release of this version has yet to be determined, some of this may change over time. He gets into some of the major advancements and features that will be included like:

• the "finally" keyword
• list() support in foreach()
• the Password Hashing API
• generators
• a new property accessor syntax
• scalar type hints

Code samples are provided in some places to help make a bit more sense out of the example.

With the first stable release of PHP 5.4 not too far off, it's important to understand the new features it offers and how to use them effectively. In this new post to DZone.com Giorgio Sironi shows how to "write clean code" with these new features, including a few snippets of code to illustrate.

After seven release candidates, it's clear PHP 5.4 is coming: as always the improvements from the previous minor version are many. [...] Let's look at the new features and score them on two metrics: usefulness, and potential for abuse. I'll try to avoid discussing non-language related matters.

He starts by pointing out some of the "gotchas" that can happen with traits (like errors thrown when more than one method is named the same and that they are a separate hierarchy), the short syntax and dereferencing support for arrays, closure binding, upload progress and more. For each of them he gives two measurements - the usefulness of the feature and the potential for abuse.

Over on the PHPClasses.org blog today there's a new post looking at the next major upcoming PHP version (5.4), what it comes with and why you might want to make the upgrade.

PHP 5.4.0 is planned to be released on February, 2 2012. By the time you are reading this, it may already been out. It is a result of many months of development. Many features were proposed for this release. Some made into this version, others did not make it at least for now. So, now you may be wondering which interesting features really made it. Let me tell you more about some of the more interesting features present in this release.

The article mentions some of the usual major features that can be found in just about every "in PHP 5.4" list - traits, the built-in web server, binary notation for integers - but it also includes some of the features that didn't make the cut this time (like annotations and the inclusion of the APC caching extension). Also included are questions to ask to see if the upgrade is for you like:

• Do you need the new features?
• Do you need the updates now?
• Try it and test it in dev first - does it meet your needs or cause other bugs?

The planned release for PHP 5.4 is during the first week of February (2012). Additionally, if you'd like to give the PHP development group some help testing out the latest Release Candidate, you can find instructions here.

On the KingFoo blog today there's an excellent look at everything new coming up in PHP 5.4, the next version of PHP set to be released in early February.

PHP 5.4 will be stable soon. In this post I'll try to give you an overview and examples of the new PHP 5.4 features. If you want to try out PHP 5.4 (which is currently in RC3), it has to be installed first. I suggest that you try this out on a virtual machine so you don't break your current PHP version.

Improvements on the list include:

• Improved Session Extension
• Built-in webserver
• Traits
• Array dereferencing
• Method calls through arrays
• Binary notation for integers
• Instantiate a class without running constructor
• Improved JSON extension
• Improved CURL extension

And this is just a start - they detail each of the improvements and provide code where needed to illustrate the update. They also link over to the PHP.net manual (or PHP bug tracker) for more information on the new feature/change.

On the Mayflower blog there's a new post looking at the upcoming traits support PHP 5.4 will have to offer. (Note: original post in German)

PHP 5 was a big step in the right direction and today resembles the object-orientation of Java very much. At the end of June 2011 one more step was made, not based on Java, but from another popular language - Scala. The new language feature called Traits allow class and cross-code reuse with no vertical transmission. It is basically a relatively simple mechanism, which is explained below using a simple example.

Their examples are a "before" and "after" of the same functionality - creating a controller that can respond with a JSON message. The first example shows a simple controller that can respond in JSON, a JSON class that can work with HTTP and a User class that implements the Serializable interface on the JSON namespace. The second example redefines the Serializable interface as a trait that can be used inside the User class rather than inherited by it.

There's also a brief look at using multiple traits in one class and what to do about naming conflicts that might pop up and the prioritization method that's been put in place to help.

PHPClasses.org has posted their latest episode of their "Lately in PHP" podcast series, Is PHP 5.4 really coming soon?

On the episode 12 of the Lately in PHP podcast, Manuel Lemos and Ernani Joppert discuss the latest developments and what is still stalling the progress of the developments needed to make PHP 5.4 happen.

They also have a bit of discussion about which browser is better for development - Chrome or Firefox (and the places Chrome might be lacking). You can listen to this latest episode either through the in-page player or by downloading the mp3 to listen at your convenience.

If you're looking to take that next step in expanding your development/design knowledge outside of your local area, you might consider attending one of the many conferences out there on a wide range of topics. Finding them may not be the easiest thing, though, so Smashing Magazine has posted this huge list of conferences yet to come in 2010.

Using the contents of [last year's] list along with some other sources, we've compiled a list of web design and development-related conferences and events that will be taking place in the next six to eight months. As always, there is no way for us to be able to include every possible event here, but we'll be glad to update the list if you provide a comment to an upcoming event that you feel would be of interest to graphic designers or web developers.

The list is huge but they have it broken up into monthly chunks to make it a bit easier to digest with events like:

• An Event Apart D.C.
• Web Directions USA
• Blackberry Developer Conference
• Future of Web Apps
• International PHP Conference
• Front-Trends Conference
• Brooklyn Beta

In a recent post Justin Tadlock takes a look ahead and talks about the upcoming WordPress 3.0 version and some of what will come with it.

There's typically a ton of hype surrounding new WordPress releases, and WordPress 3.0 certainly won't be short of people singing its praises. This upcoming release might even have more hype than usual because the sheer number of new features will be overwhelming. When WordPress 3.0 is released, it'll mark the release of several things I've been waiting for in the last couple of years. It'll be at a point where it can be molded to create any type of website.

He talks about what things will make this release stand out from some of the ones in the past and what features with come with it including custom post types, improved navigation menu features, built-in shortlinks, custom headers/backgrounds and and more standardized comment form.

If I were to dub this release anything it'd be WordPress: Custom.

This new post to the PHPClasses.org blog take a look at some of the new features that will be included in the PHP 5.3 release (coming soon to a web server near you!) by way of an interview with Lukas Smith.

his article presents an interview with core PHP developer Lukas Kahwe Smith that has pushed many of the new features of PHP 5.3 as release manager. Lukas talks about PHP 5.3 new features such as lambda functions, closures and PHAR support. He also explains what are traits, which for now it is a feature that was left out of PHP 5.3. He also talks about future PHP 5.x and PHP 6, as well how anybody can help in the development of PHP to make it come out faster.

They talk about the PHP.net wiki, briefly touch on the PHP 5.3 feature updates, performance/memory usage in the new version, Lambda functions, closures and PHAR and what's to come with PHP 6.